TY - JOUR
T1 - Microbial electrolysis cells with polyaniline/multi-walled carbon nanotube-modified biocathodes
AU - Chen, Yingwen
AU - Xu, Yuan
AU - Chen, Liuliu
AU - Li, Peiwen
AU - Zhu, Shemin
AU - Shen, Shubao
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21106072 and 51172107 ), the Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (No. 20113221110004 ), and the Key Projects in the National Science & Technology Pillar Program of China (No. 2012BAE01B03 ) for their support of this study.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd.
PY - 2015/8/1
Y1 - 2015/8/1
N2 - In this paper, we modified biocathodes with PANI (Polyaniline)/MWCNT (Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube) composites to improve hydrogen production in single-chamber, membrane-free biocathode MECs. The results showed that the hydrogen production rates increased with an increase in applied voltage. At an applied voltage of 0.9 V, the modified biocathode MECs achieved a hydrogen production rate of 0.67m3m-3d-1, current density of 205 Am-3, COD of 86.8%, coulombic efficiency of 72%, cathodic hydrogen recovery of 42%, and energy efficiency of 81% with respect to the electrical power input. LSV (Linear Sweep Voltammetry) scans, SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy) images and DGGE (Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis) demonstrated that hydrogen production is catalyzed by the special biofilm attached on a modified biocathode, and the microorganism species and quantity present were significantly different between the modified biocathode and the non-modified biocathode. In general, the performance of MECs with modified biocathodes was improved in the presence of a higher current density and hydrogen generation rate.
AB - In this paper, we modified biocathodes with PANI (Polyaniline)/MWCNT (Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube) composites to improve hydrogen production in single-chamber, membrane-free biocathode MECs. The results showed that the hydrogen production rates increased with an increase in applied voltage. At an applied voltage of 0.9 V, the modified biocathode MECs achieved a hydrogen production rate of 0.67m3m-3d-1, current density of 205 Am-3, COD of 86.8%, coulombic efficiency of 72%, cathodic hydrogen recovery of 42%, and energy efficiency of 81% with respect to the electrical power input. LSV (Linear Sweep Voltammetry) scans, SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy) images and DGGE (Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis) demonstrated that hydrogen production is catalyzed by the special biofilm attached on a modified biocathode, and the microorganism species and quantity present were significantly different between the modified biocathode and the non-modified biocathode. In general, the performance of MECs with modified biocathodes was improved in the presence of a higher current density and hydrogen generation rate.
KW - Hydrogen production
KW - Microbial electrolysis cell
KW - Modified biocathode
KW - Polyaniline/multi-walled carbon nanotubes
KW - Wastewater treatment
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U2 - 10.1016/j.energy.2015.05.057
DO - 10.1016/j.energy.2015.05.057
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84940440770
SN - 0360-5442
VL - 88
SP - 377
EP - 384
JO - Energy
JF - Energy
ER -